PSE gets nod to borrow P1B to boost PDS stake

THE Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) will buy more shares in Philippine Dealing System Holdings Corp. (PDS) after its Board of Directors approved a plan to secure a P1.15-billion loan to fund the transaction.

“The Board of Directors of the Company, in its meeting held today, authorized the obtainment of a loan in the amount of P1.15 billion for the purchase of additional shares in PDS Holdings Corp. and P400 million to fund the fit-out and capital requirements of the company for the term of one year,” the bourse announced in a filing on Thursday.

The PSE was given the go-signal to borrow the said amount from any of three banks—BDO Unibank, Inc., Metropolitan Bank and Trust Company (Metrobank), and Bank of Commerce—“under such terms and conditions as the president and CEO of the company may deem favorable to the company.”

The PSE is currently pursuing a plan to merge with PDS to achieve efficiencies, reduce risks, and facilitate the development of new products.

It will refile within this week a new notice to the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) for a merger review of its planned P2-billion merger with PDS following the withdrawal of the initial notice after the PCC sought more information on the future operations of the merged entity.

In an earlier interview with The Manila Times, PSE President Ramon Monzon said the bourse has acquired a 51 percent stake in PDS, effectively taking control of the latter.

The Exchange clarified that additional shareholders expressed interest in selling their stake in PDS to the PSE at a time when the merger notice was already under evaluation by the PCC.

“There were additional shareholders who sold to us, so na-breach namin yung 50 percent, so sabi sa amin, you have to refile again, kasi ngayon hindi na minority purchase, controlling na [we had breached the 50 percent, so we were told, you have to refile again, because now it is not a minority purchase, it is already a controlling purchase]. You must file as a controlling [purchaser]. So what we did is basically we just withdrew lahat nung filing naming [all of our filing]originally and now we are refiling as a controlling purchaser,” he explained.